Nobdenfelt guns and ammunition



(No Model.)

- T. NORDENFELT.

SHELL FUSE.

Patented Mar. 6,"1888 1; 21/67? fort I UNITED (STATES.

PATENT Grinch-.

THoRsrnN'NoRDENr-ELT, or WESTMINSTER, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR TO TH.NORDENFELT GUNS AND AMM NITIONJ MPANY, (L'IMITED,) OF' SAME PLACE.

SHELL-FUSE.

SPECIFICATION, forming part of Letters Patent No. 379.025, dated March'6. was.

Application mm November 1887. Serial No. 254.616.- (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, THORSTEN N ORDENFELT,

a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, resid-v ing at 53 ParliamentStreet, in the city of West,

' minster, England,ci'vil engineer,have'inventcd nit ion duringtransport without the necessity :5 of using'safety-pins,asis generallydone. When thvm'i'lfi'oved fuses have percussion devices, these devicesare contained within a chamber a of cylindrical shape formed in apillar-of the Q plug'or piece which screws into the nose of theprojectile. This chamber is closed at its inner end by ascrew-stopperin'which is acentral cav-.-

0- of the pellet, so as to leave the pellet free,

ity filled-with powdenor explosive to make a magazine. The cylindricalchamber of the pillar contains-within'it a pellet primed with fulminate,and a split ring or mantlet which embraces the pellet and rests upon ashoulder on the pellet, which it holds in its place. On firing, theinertia of the split ring or mantlet causes it to slide along thecylindrical surface within the chamber. On the projectile striking, thepellet with the mantlet upon it passes to the front end of the chamberwithin which it is contained, and a point fixed at the end of 5 thechamber strikes the priming of fulminate and fires it. The flash passesto the composition in the central cavity of the stopper which closes thechamber, and the fire from this composition enters the interior of theshell and 40 fires the bursting charge. So far as above set forth thefuses (the percussion devices).are not herein claimed, as they aresubstantially the same as shown in my prior application, No. 244,084,filed July 12, 1883'. a I now, in accordance with my presentinvention,provideasecond mantlet or split ring rest- -i'ng on ashoulderupon the exterior of the cylinvQ TiCal pillar containing the percussionmechround'for the purpose of adjusting the time which the fuseshall burnbefore igniting the bursting charge within the projectile. In the ring,on its rear face, there is a groove charged I with fuse composition, andthis face of the ring abuts upon another face on an annular shoulder ofthe plug-piece which is screwed into the nose of the projectile. Beneaththering of fuse Y. o

composition a passage is formed which itself is 6 charged with gunpowder'01 other explosive. This passage leads to the central cavity previouslyreferred to,'which is also charged with explosive material. YVh'en thecomposition in theadjustable ring is ignited, it burns until it 7oreaches the passage leading inward to the central cavity, and then theexplosion takes place. The time occupied in reaching the passagedepends, of course, as in the ordinary time-fuse, upon the position ofthe ring. The ring is kept in its place by a conical cover, which inturn is held in position' by anosc-plug which screws into the head ofthe cylinder containving the percussion apparatus. When the compositionin the time-ring burns, the gases produced pass up within the conicalcover and .find a vent by perforations in the nose-piece,

or an escape may be otherwise provided.

In order that. my stud invention. maybe fully understood and readilycarried into effect, 8 5 I willproceed to describe the drawings hereuntoannexed. I

In the drawings, Figure 1 shows (enlarged) a longitudinal section'of atime and percussion fuse constructed in accordance with my in-govention. Figs. 2 and 3 are end views of the two split rings. Y

a is the plug-piece which screws into the projectile,'and a is a pillarformed in connection with it and made hollow to constitute a 5 chamber.

bis the plug which closes the chamber of the pillar o. It is hollow andperforated on all sides, as the drawings indicate and its interior at bis filled with rammed powder or other-suitable explosive.

, Within the chamber of the pillar a, rap

range mechanism for firing the shell by percussion. That which I hereshow I have employed for some time past; It consists 'ofa pellet, c,bored through :and cylindrical externally. It'is loaded withrammedpowder or other suit-able explosive at and is tipped withfulminate at 0. externally, butslightly reduced in diameter at its outerend, Here it is embraced tightly by the nlantlet d, consisting of ametal ring which is split longitudinally from end to end. The

inertia of this ring causes it, on firing, "to pass completely onto thepellet,-andthe momentum of both pellet and mantlet,-when the projectilerammed full of composition, and the fi'repass' ing along the passageignites thQCOIHPOSillOll' charge of 40 c I perforated to allow theescape of the gases re-' 'sulting from the burning of the fusecomposistrikes, brings thefulminate 0- agaiust the point at the fore endof the'chamber of the. pillar a and explodes it, firing the composition0' and b, and so the fire passes to the bursting charge of the shell.The cylindrical pillar a likewise receives upon it asplit ring, e. This,

on firing, passes along the pillar a, andin so doing it strikes upon apercussion cap ,or primer, f','which is inserted into a'perforation inthe time-ringf.

f 2 is a groove on the rear face of the timering. It also is'loaded, asusual, with rammed powder or other explosive.- The groove does not passcompletely around the ring, and theprimer f, when exploded, fires thecdmposition at one end ofthe-groove. The fire burns along thegroove'until it reaches the passage c in the plug-piece a',- whic'hpassage is also b, and the ignition of the bursting the shellimmediately follows. j

g is a packing insertedbeneath the ring f, between it andan annularshoulder of the plugpiece. The packing is of sucha nature as to bereadily burned through 'as,the composition is consumed.

h is a conical cover serving to hold the ring" f in place, but allowingit to be turned to adjust the time which the fuse shall buru before;

igniting the bursting charge.

z is the nose-plug, which, screwing into'a socket at the end of thepillar-a, securely holds the cover. The plugi and the pillar a are tionin the passages and parts of the fuse;

The pellet is cylindrical v communicating with the passage in theshoulder, and the primer in a perforation-leading from the interiorsurface of the time-ring toits composition-filled groove and adaptedtobe fired by being struck by. the split ring when the-projectile ispropelled, substantially as set forth.

2, The combination of the plug-piece adapted to be screwed into aprojectile and having the projecting .cy-lindrical chambered pillar andannular shoulder, the split ring yieldingl'y embracing the outer end ofthe pillar, the'timering surrounding the inner, end of the pillarplug-pieceand. having the composition-filled v groove in its faceadjacent to said shoulder,

the primer in the perforationleadi'ng from the interior surfaceof thetime-ring to its composition-filled groove and adapted to be fired bybeing struck by the split ring when the projectile is propelled, theplug closing the base of the pillar-chamber and having the sideperforations and the cavity filled with explosive composition, thecomposition -"filled passage communicating with the composition filledgroovein the time-ring and with the side'perforations of the plug,thelongitudinally-perfo supported upon the annular shoulder of theratedpellet within the pillar-chamber and rest- 9 3 ing at the inner endthereof, the-split ring within andat the opposite end of thepillarchamber'and yieldingly embracingthe pellet,

the priming'carried by the pellet,and the point at the outer end ofthecharn'ber, against which theprimingstrikesuponimpactoftheprojectileby the forward movement of the pellet,-to- I gether with the split ringpreviously caused to move along it'a'nd to the inner end of the chamberupon the firing pf the 'projectile by io5 the-propelling charge,substantiall y as set forth. THO-BSTEN .NORDENFELT.' Witnesses: j. 1

P ILIP TRAIN L

